Builder Bankrupty - John Laing Homes

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Submitted by carlover on July 4, 2009 - 10:46pm

We bought a home in the Silhouette community of 4S Ranch about one and a half years ago. With John Laing now in Chapter 7 liquidation should we consider filing a claim with the court? I guess the only open issue would be the construction defect warranty the builder would normally provide for 10 years. Any advice?

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I've been through this same
Submitted by svelte on July 5, 2009 - 11:00am.

I've been through this same thing when another builder went bankrupt in the 1990s.

We bought our house new and the builder went BK about 3 years later. This did worry me some, but it turned out okay.

As long as your builder's insurance company(ies) and subcontractors didn't go BK also, there will be lawyers who will gladly assist you should your house need repair down the road under the 10 year warranty. They will most likely want to do this through a class-action lawsuit. If a neighbor gets it started, usually you can join in at no out-of-pocket expense to you...you just get a cut of the award if there is one.

Those lawyers will point this out to you: you can't collect damages for the builder's failure to follow code, but you can collect damages should that lead to damage. Example: say it is code to have all roof tiles nailed down (I'm not sure if it is or not). If the builder did not nail them down, you cannot sue them successfully to have your roof brought up to code. However, if loose roof tiles leads to leaks that damage, say, the drywall, they you CAN successfully sue for the repair of the dryway that was caused by failure to follow code. I've probably oversimplified things, but you get the idea.

My recommendation to you would be to keep very detailed records of any and all repairs and upgrades you had done to the house. You never know when that may come in handy.

I remember not too long ago
Submitted by briansd1 on July 5, 2009 - 4:54pm.

I remember not too long ago that people claimed that John Laing would be fine. Their owners from Dubai have unlimited wealth.

Even the richest of the rich know when to cut the losses and call it water under the bridge.